FOR the first three or four years of her reign, Victoriaoften found herself
ensconced on a sofa in Windsor Castle, listening spellbound to Melbourne's
accounts of his youth. So much had happened between the 1780s and the
1830s, that his tales had the quality of describing a foreign country. It is on
these stories that an account of Melbourne's early life has to be built.
Inevitably, they are partial, coloured, and no doubt much elaborated to tease
the imagination of his young audience. Victoria was happy to believe most
of what he said, and to credit him with an astonishing memory:

After dinner I sat on the sofa alone, and Lord Melbourne sat near me the whole
evening. He is so agreeable, and kind and good. He has a very good memory and
astonished us all by saying that he remembers from thirteen months old! He said, 'No
one will believe it but I remember perfectly well being inoculated at 13 months old,'
and 'I am convinced I can recollect the Riots in '80; I remember being sent out of
Town then; I was only fourteen months old then, for I was born in '79.' This is incred-
ible! But he certainly has an excellent memory, for he is like a book, if you ask him
anything about History; and he remembers all he reads. ¹

Such is the nature of the surviving evidence that Melbourneand his memory
are the major witnesses to his early years.

His account encompasses much unhappiness. Often the adult world 'con-
trived to annoy me so, and had made me cry so much, that I had lost all
appetite'. ² Worse, having discovered that he had an aversion to boiled mut-
ton and rice pudding, he was put on this diet every day. Victoriasympa-
thetically thought this 'a bad system'. ³ Melbourne was clear that 'boys should
have a woman about them till they are five or six years old', but, in his case,
the woman in question was 'a Swiss Guernsey' nurse, who was 'very ill-
tempered'. ⁴ She did, however, contrive to teach him to read before the age
of 4. ⁵ He was then handed over to a Mr Cuppage, who taught writing and
the rudiments of Latin. According to Melbourne, the régime imposed on him
was hard, and he recalled looking out of the classroom windows at agricul-
tural labourers at work, and wishing he 'was one of those happy fellows in

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